In the gospel of today, we have two appearances of
risen Jesus to the apostles; one in the absence of St. Thomas and the other with
the presence of St. Thomas. In the first part the risen Lord empowers the
apostles by breathing on them the Holy Sprit. This empowerment becomes complete
only on Pentecost day – the universal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The first
reading from the Acts 4:32-35 summarizes the life of the first church, the
primitive church in Jerusalem. The first Christians sold everything and brought
them to the feet of the apostles (Acts 4:34-35). The apostles with the
empowerment of the Holy Spirit, continue to bear witness to the Risen Lord. The
teaching of Jesus is actualized in the primitive church. The hospitality,
sharing, caring, loving one another are practiced with great zeal. Because,
their only concern was to win redemption by obeying God’s commandment; Love
God and Love one’s neighbour. Jesus taught the rich man not to go on
identifying who is one’s neighbour but to focus on how to be neighbour to
anyone. This becoming a neighbour is practiced very much in the
primitive church. As the apostles continued to proclaim their shock about
resurrection of the Lord, they too encouraged the believers to live a community
life, because of which no one lacked anything (Acts 4:35). This way of life is
a revolutionary in those days. That’s why prior to the name Christians they
were called as the ‘followers of the way’. This new way of sharing material
things with others without any reservations, treating the other as equals
without any discrimination and giving one’s life for Jesus as honour and privilege
got the attention of many. The two things that made Christianity to spread are:
i) the proclamation about resurrected God and ii) the community life of the
believers. If today the world is civilized, it is because of the christianity.
The community life triggered the development in the society, focused on the
eradication of the poverty and set the humanitarian work as primary concern.
The risen Jesus glorified and dignified the human life. Thanks to His passion
and resurrection. The proclamation of heaven made the humanity to be
disciplined on this earth.
In the second part of the gospel, St. Thomas
represents each of us who seek for sings and miracles to believe in God. Most
of the time we expect miracles from God, so that we may acknowledge Him. God
does not need our acknowledgment. He is who HE IS. If our faith is simply based
on signs then that would be mere attraction, not real faith. The real faith is
to believe without any reservation. The outward signs and miracles happen at
times. They are to sustain us in faith. They are a help to our weak nature. Actually
we are more blessed, because we believe in Jesus without seeing Him (Jn 20:29).
The people who lived with Him and all the more who witnessed His resurrection
are more responsible to communicate the truth about Him. The more the
privilege, the greater the responsibility.
The central message of resurrection is ‘peace’. The
risen Jesus said peace to His disciples even to St. Thomas who demanded sign. The
death of Jesus brought harmony and peace between God and man. In turn, Jesus
sent His apostles to spread the peace of God/Christ. The life of Christian is a
community life, a peaceful life. This is realized as each of us try to become a
neighbour to anyone without any selection. In becoming a neighbour we
discover our faith in Christ. In becoming a neighbour we establish peace
with God and in Society. In becoming a neighbour we acclaim the risen
Lord with the words of St. Thomas “My Lord and My God!”. Let our becoming a
neighbour establish peace that Risen Christ shared with us. Let us not seek
signs for attraction but have faith to live the essence of Christian life; becoming
a neighbour.
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